


Escape to Peace

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-08
Updated: 2015-11-08
Packaged: 2018-04-30 15:33:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5169083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blair is tired and trying to relax</p>
            </blockquote>





	Escape to Peace

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Sentinel Thursday prompt 'drain'

Escape to Peace

by Bluewolf

Although it was one of Cascade's recognized beauty spots - a mile or two south of the city, a small parking lot had been built at a place that gave an unrestricted view of the ocean and the shoreline to the south - it was usually deserted, probably because it was impossible to reach the shore from it - there was a sheer drop of at least two hundred feet between the viewpoint and the shore. Of course that was partly what made the view so spectacular - but it was surprising how many people wanted to park their cars then access the shore, paying scant attention to the view.

Blair went there any time he was drained and needing to recharge his batteries. Extrovert though he was, there were times when he found that having other people around was amazingly stressful. Of course, being a TA who was willing to go that extra mile to help a struggling student didn't help his stress levels; nor did his frustration over the students who, despite his best efforts, didn't seem able - or willing - to put in more the minimum work needed to obtain a barely passing grade. Himself an almost obsessive learner, Blair couldn't understand anyone who seemed content to plod along with only the barest surface knowledge of anything.

Oh, he could understand the people who weren't interested in a subject pretty well ignoring it, but if they were taking a subject, surely it had to hold some interest for them? But he knew that some students - the ones on sports scholarships, for example - had to take some academic subjects, and they mostly looked for what they thought would be the easy options - though why they should think anthropology was an easy option was beyond his comprehension. Was it because anthropology and archaeology were seen as soft sciences, and they saw 'soft' as a synonym for 'easy'?

Well, the jocks who took his classes soon learned their mistake!

Most of them, he had to admit, accepted that he wouldn't give them an easy pass - over the years, two or three had even developed a genuine interest in the subject, and planned - once their sports careers had finished, being pragmatic enough to realize that a career in sport was likely to be fairly short-lived - to have an eventual career in anthropology. But there had also been some who were totally egoistic, seemed to think that they were the best baseball/basketball/football players the world had ever seen - or would ever see - and apparently believed that they should automatically be given a passing grade in every academic subject they took. The previous year, one of them had assaulted a lecturer who had given him a well deserved poor grade - Dr. Barnard had suffered brain damage as a result, was no longer able to work, and the would-be professional football player was serving a twenty-year sentence.

If the other egoistical 'sportsmen' had hoped that Barnard's injuries would persuade the other lecturers to cave in to threats, they soon discovered that they were wrong. But dealing with the inflated sense of self-importance some of the students suffered, Blair decided, meant it was no surprise that most of the lecturers, both TAs and full professors, suffered quite seriously from stress.

What the others did about it he had no idea, though he strongly suspected one or two of drinking too much and at least one of having succumbed to the illusory lure of drugs. But he came here. Sat just gazing at the view, sometimes - but not always - meditating, allowing the peace that surrounded him to drain off the tension.

Strange, though, he decided, that the tension of his university work gave him more headaches than the tension of working with the police, of helping his often apparently ungrateful sentinel. When he had a break from university work - even though he still kept working on his dissertation - and was mostly concentrating on the work he did with Jim, he rarely had time to drive out here, alone, to unwind. Yet he didn't really feel he needed to.

Of course, he did understand Jim, did understand that his sentinel had been brought up by an unemotional father to consider that even saying 'Thank you' was a weakness. And Jim did his best to protect his civilian partner from danger.

Blair took his keys, got out of his car and, not bothering to lock the car in this deserted spot, walked over to one of the picnic benches, where he sat watching the light playing off the faint ripple that stirred the surface of the water.

It had been raining earlier; out of the corner of his eye he registered the water still draining out of a puddle to seep down the rock towards the sea. He turned his head to watch it for a minute, imagining the water was the tension flowing out of him.

"Chief." The quiet voice beside him made him jump. He hadn't even been aware of another vehicle arriving.

He turned his head, and smiled. "Hey, Jim." He nodded towards the sea. "Beautiful, isn't it."

"Yes, it is. And peaceful."

Blair nodded. "And peaceful," he agreed. He took a deep breath. "What brings you here?"

"Can't I have a quiet evening enjoying some beautiful scenery with a friend? I've even brought a picnic - well, if you can call a sandwich and a bottle of water a picnic." Jim handed over a bottle and a paper bag.

"But... how did you know I was here?"

"I know this is where you come when you're stressed out. I could see, this morning, that it wouldn't take much to drive you to the point where you'd need to de-stress - and I knew, very early in the afternoon, that something had driven you over that point. What happened?"

"Nothing much. Just a minor argument with one of the other TAs, easily enough resolved - we both wanted to borrow the same artefact to illustrate a lecture. He got pissed because I needed it first, I snapped back because it was easy for me to get it to him after I'd finished with it in plenty of time for his lecture... Talk about a storm in a teacup. But it left me wanting to come here... "

"And have you unwound yet?"

"I think so, and this - " he held up his sandwich - "is all I needed to finish unwinding. Thanks, man." He took a big bite. "Mmm... Ongue," he mumbled round the mouthful. He swallowed. "Tongue," he repeated happily. "The perfect comfort sandwich." There was only one place in Cascade where it was possible to get tongue sandwiches, not convenient to reach from the PD or the loft, and certainly not on the direct road south, and knowing that Jim had made the effort to go there was in itself enough to improve Blair's mood. With Jim, actions definitely spoke louder than words.

Jim smiled and bit into his own sandwich.


End file.
